Presidential election 2022: Numeum’s digital proposals

2022 will be a decisive year, with the presidential election in France determining the fate of our country for the next five years. More than ever, the challenges we collectively face are linked to the progress and changes brought about by new technologies in our society. Digital technology is shaping and
revolutionizing our contemporary world, and the value chains and professions that accompany them.
This makes digital technology indispensable to the future of our country, to the development of our economy and to our influence in the world.

Numeum intends to make its contribution to the debate leading up to the presidential election in April 2022, to ensure that digital issues are not forgotten in the campaign, and that the terms of the debate are correctly set, without ideology or prejudice.
This is the thrust of the 20 major actions drawn up by all Numeum members, experts and commissions, based around 4 main priorities.

4 priorities for digital

• Focus on training for the professions of the future and digitization of existing skills
• Gaining strategic autonomy by positioning France in the race for disruptive technologies, notably through the creation of a major ministerial technology cluster bringing together digital technology, industry, higher education and research.
• Boosting the fight for cybersecurity and against cybercrime
• Making digital technology a major lever for decarbonization, biodiversity and the protection of scarce resources

Priority 1: Focus on training for the professions of the future and digitization of existing skills

This priority implies triple action, in terms of initial training, vocational training and above all retraining, which is a massive phenomenon for which our vocational training system is unprepared despite some adjustments since 2017.
Actions to be implemented:
● Boost vocational retraining between sectors of activity to anticipate technological change:

• By scaling up the Transitions Collectives (TransCo) scheme, which has remained confidential
  despite its roll-out in 2021, in collaboration with all
  professional branches and their OPCOs. Its aim is not internal redeployment, but external retraining.
  ● Scaling up several particularly inclusive digital training programs
  throughout France:
• Deployment of programs such as P-TECH, with the French Ministry of Education, to prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow and promote equal
  opportunities, with a target of 10,000 students in 5 years.
• Deployment in all regions of the Numeric’Emploi scheme, which federates the energies
  of regional players to support skills development for jobseekers.
  ● The development of work-study digital training courses for all types of public to get closer to the level of Germany, where over 60% of people in an age group are work-study students:
• Financing of work-study digital training on a larger scale, with
  the target of 100,000 people trained in 5 years.
• Payment of an exceptional bonus to VSEs/SMEs to enable them to take on apprentices trained in digital technology
• Financial support for foreign training initiatives for apprentices at
  the image of Erasmus + by facilitating access to European schemes (Erasmus+ and future
  ALMA scheme)
  ● Encourage the diversification of talent in digital professions:
• Give more resources to the Grande école du numérique, which works to integrate
  those furthest from employment (young school leavers and the long-term unemployed
  ) into the workforce.
• Launch a national communication campaign on the challenges of diversity in the digital professions
• Hosting ninth-grade interns in digital companies, with a target of 50% girls

Priority 2: Gaining strategic autonomy by positioning France in the race for disruptive technologies

Current governmental structures are insufficiently adapted to the challenges of
digital transformation, which are as much about industrial innovation as they are about financing the strategic
projects of the future and mobilizing cutting-edge skills.
Actions to be implemented:
● The creation of a governmental body commensurate with the challenges of mastering the
technologies of the future:

• Creation of a major ministerial technology cluster bringing together digital, industry,
  higher education and research, working in close collaboration with Bercy
  and the financing structures that depend on it (BPI, Caisse des dépôts, funds of funds
  etc.). The Conseil national de l’Industrie and the Conseil de l’Innovation would also be
  enlarged to include digital professions
  ● Repositioning the French Ministry of Education to raise the general level of mathematics and the attractiveness of digital and IT education:
• Putting mathematics back into the core curriculum at lycée
• Boost the attractiveness of the digital and computer science (NSI) specialization in high schools
• Stabilizing programs
• Create a digital bac pro
  ● Close support for emerging technologies (AI and quantum) through :
• The deployment of the Ethical AI initiative by digital companies
• The development of “use cases” for quantum technologies in sectors of
  the real economy: banking, insurance, logistics, transport, defense, security, supplychain etc.
  ● European technological autonomy
• European Small Tech Act extended to include SMEs, requiring public authorities to
  preferentially contract with European SMEs, VSEs and start-ups when the offer exists.
• Financial support for disruptive technologies through the creation of an agency based on the American DARPA model.

Priority 3: Boost the fight for cybersecurity and against cybercrime

The cyber-risk and cyber-crime affecting our businesses and organizations undermine public confidence in technology, delaying global digital adaptation.
Actions to be taken :

• The creation of a European cyber-FBI with substantial resources to deal with the
  upsurge in cyber-attacks.
• The creation of a national cyber-prosecutor’s office with investigative staff and resources
  based on the current J3 section of the Paris public prosecutor’s office.
• The creation of a national cyber-intelligence agency that would anticipate threats by consolidating statistics on cyber-attacks, case analyses and available cybersecurity data (open data cyber-intelligence).

Priority 4: Make digital technology a major lever for decarbonization, biodiversity and the protection of scarce resources

Numeum is aware of the global environmental and climate challenges. Like other sectors, the digital sector must reduce its negative externalities. But it is also an essential tool in the service of ecological transition.
Actions to be implemented:
● Supporting the digital sector in its environmental trajectory by

• Ensuring that initiatives to measure the sector’s
  environmental footprint are completed.
• The integration of the environmental footprint theme into all
  digital curricula
  ● The use of digital technology as a tool for environmental transition by :
• Developing data for the environment (environmental open data)
• Supporting digital innovation in support of the ecological transition by supporting green-tech and extending the CIR to new green technologies (green CIR).

“We in the digital industry are clear about the risks and difficulties of digital transformation. But we must approach these difficulties without prejudice or ideology. Above all, let’s not block innovation! Let’s not listen to those who have always associated progress with danger for mankind.”

Godefroy de Bentzmann – Co-Chairman of Numeum

“We have clearly chosen the path of reasoned progress. Between the apostles of unbridled globalization and the preachers of inward-looking attitudes, we choose the balance between openness and independence, and the complementarity between technology and people.

Pierre-Marie Lehucher – Co-President of Numeum